July 31, 2017

Kids Company ; Unfinished Business

Great to hear that the Kids Company Trustees are being brought to book for their failures to do their work in ensuring financial viability to this inefficient charity.

They survived only because of political patronage run by the Poster Girl of the Big Society. I have long argued that the Public Administration Select Committee has not finished its task on this. Our work is on display at the Donmar Theatre in glorious musical form. As yet there has been no penalties for the two ministers who handed over £3 million of taxpayers' money to Kids Company a few days before they collapsed. That was in defiance of published Civil Service advice. The Prime Minister should have reported them to the the Independent Adviser on Ministes' Interests who supervises Ministers' Conduct. It's a long story but it did not happen. One of the witnesses should have been summoned to appear again at the committee for possible misleading statements. It was not done. The committee conclusions on the role of the Trustees is below.

"Primary responsibility for Kids Company’s collapse rests with the charity’s Trustees. Whether these allegations prove true or malicious, if the Trustees had not allowed the charity’s weak financial position to persist for so long, Kids Company would not have been so vulnerable to the impact of the allegations. e Board failed to protect the interests of the charity and its beneficiaries, despite its statutory responsibility to do so. Trustees repeatedly ignored auditors’ clear warnings about Kids Company’s precarious finances. is negligent financial management rendered the charity incapable of surviving any variance in its funding stream; when allegations of sexual misconduct emerged in July 2015 and threatened to impede fundraising, the charity was obliged to close immediately.

e Charity Commission’s guidance requires Trustees to “make decisions solely in the charity’s interests, so they shouldn’t allow their judgement to be swayed by personal prejudices or dominant personalities”.2 Kids Company’s Board of Trustees lacked the experience of youth services or psychotherapy necessary to interrogate the decisions of the Founder-Chief Executive. is approach le the Trustees unable to defend the reputation of Kids Company and thus to discharge a prime obligation of the good governance and leadership of any organisation. It is essential that Trustees of all charities ensure that some members of the Board have experience of the area relevant to the charity’s activities, in addition to the necessary skills, and that all Trustees have the appropriate attitude towards responsible governance."